EPIC and FENN paddlers switching sides

Disclaimer: The following is tongue in cheek and designed to prompt some light hearted baseless banter



As an Aussie I am rightly stoked to see another Aussie Cory Hill win the Molokai race on the weekend. It will be interesting to see how they stitch together the video footage of the race for the race story as I may have missed something from the photos but it appeared to me that they thought Hank and Clint were in a duel for the win.

While the Epic Kayaks facebook page congratulated Cory on the win, Epic Australia's facebook page was a little less congratulatory by stating

"An exciting finish to the Maui Jim Molokoi Challenge 2015!! EPIC TEAM paddlers Clint and Hank led the field dicing all the way across the channel and Cory snuck around Portlock and took line honours!! Congratulations to 3 outstanding athletes who earned their way on to the podium!!"

I wouldnt have thought after such a long race you could "sneak around" and win by a minute and a half. Maybe the media thought he snuck by?!

I hadnt realised that Cory had switched to Fenn from Epic, so when I first saw the result I thought, wow, Epic would be happy with a 1,2,3.

Then looking at the photo of the top 5 noticed the Fenn top. Did a little google searching to find that Cory had switched to Fenn this year!

Then today I read that Jasper Mocke is now with Epic!

The world has been turned upside down, the name Mocke has always been synonymous with Fenn.

I guess the good thing from all this is that it shows that competition is alive and well in the sport when paddlers are attracted away from one manufacturer to another and hopefully it means the support for the elites is growing.

Meanwhile many of us will continue to paddle whatever ski we are comfortable in

Wow... Jasper to Epic! That's huge for them. I guess with Oscar leaving it freed up some money to be spent on other athletes. I think it a huge loss for Fenn as Jasper is not only a top bloke but obviously one of the very best in the world.

I knew Cory went from Epic to Fenn earlier in the year when Jeremy Cotter went back to Fenn after a short stint with Epic. I don't think Cory's profile is anywhere near Jaspers at this stage but if Cory concentrates purely on paddling and gives away Ironman then this may change.. His win at Molokai shows he is the real deal and Fenn should be capitalising on it. Promotion and marketing don't seem to be Fenns strong suit.

I wonder who will be next on the round-about at the top of the surf ski world?

It will be interesting to see results this year. It seems that when its flatter the Think and Epic skis do well. When there is some surfing to be done the Fenns tend to come out on top. Are some boats better in some conditions? Jasper seemed to do well at the Doctor the Duel etc. Curious to see how he goes on the new boat, to see if my theory is right.

Or it could be that the Think and Epic paddlers are better in flat, and the Fenn paddlers are better in the downwind...

That's my bet - I expect to see an Epic ex-Fenn paddler doing well in the downwinds this time round.

I wonder if Jasper has a K1 sponsor (Hank has Kayak Centre).

Always wondered why Epic don't get sponsored paddlers to paddle their K1 (legacy), perhaps now Jasper might?

It's great for the sport to have these guys lining up wondering who will win today? Would be good to see the sport grow to the point where the sponsors could afford to get them all to the major races on the calendar and not just a handful.

I think the problem with having Epic as a sponsor for K1 and ski is that they don't seem to make river K1s. All the Epic K1s I've ever seen have under stern rudders.

That's not going to work for any K1 or K2 race in South Africa that is of any significance. (I'm thinking specifically of Jasper and Hank here)

I own a carbon v10 and carbon elite. The Elite is faster downwind and the V10 is faster on the flat.
Different brands definitely have different strengths